Steinbeck also presents women as sexual temptations and trouble-makers. George and Lennie have a childhood friend who is in prison “on account of a tart”. Also their own troubles result from a tempting attitude of two women; the woman in Weed and Curley’s wife.
We find early in the novel that George and Lennie have run away from the previous ranch where they worked due to trouble there with a woman. Because of misunderstanding of Lennie’s love for soft things, she accused him for rapping when he touched her dress. George is convinced that women are always the cause of such problems as they tempt men to behave in such a way that they wouldn’t act without being provoked.
Women are a kind of absent symbol in the book, being there only to complete the picture where men are the main characters. As the men on the ranch cannot settle down, a visit to a brothel is enough of women for them. They have no desire for a wife or a female companion. Women around them are reduced at /to being sexual objects.
Introduced as a “tart” who “got the eye” by Candy and being considered a trouble-maker by the workers on the ranch, Curley’s wife begins to be presented in a sympathetic way as the story progresses. In the end of the novel, instead of being a trouble-maker, she is a victim. Not only a victim of a murder, but she is a victim of circumstances as well. Being called “tart”, “tramp” and “jail bait” from the first time when she was seen, it is a sign of prejudice. Men judge her from the first sight without knowing her. Also being killed so easy by Lennie presents her as an extremely week human being.
Furthermore we know she is desperately lonely based on what she says in Crooks’ room and what she reveals to Lennie in the barn. “Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely” Having married only to get away from home, living at the ranch where she has nothing to do, she has no friends and is allowed only one relationship with Curley.
As most of the characters in ‘Of Mice and Men’, Curley’s wife is a dreamer. She confesses her desire to be a movie star before her death. Also she admits that she doesn’t like Curley. “He ain’t be a nice fella.” she says, and married him because her mother have stolen the letter from the nice gay who wanted to put her “in movies”.
The only woman who is presented positively in the novel is Lennie’s aunt. She is introduced as a caretaker character. Aunt Clara is not his mother, but she is blood relative and has taken Lennie to look after him when his mother died. She is presented as a ‘little old fat woman’ but when she is talked about it is in a respectful tone. We can see that Lennie respects her from the way he talks to her in his dream in the last pages of the book. He calls her “ma’am”. However, she is a flat character as we never met her because she is not longer living.
Steinbeck’s characters seem to come in pairs: George and Lennie, Aunt Clara and Curley’s wife, Candy and his dog and so on. Aunt Clara and Curley’s wife are the opposite. One has a name while the other hasn’t. Even the two local brothel keeper look like the opposite, one is cheaper and funny while the other wants the money and hasn’t got time for jokes.
Finally, Steinbeck presents women as attractive. Slim calls Curley’s wife “Hi, good-looking”and Lennie find her “purty”. These quotes show that men on the ranch think she is a beautiful woman. Also she sees to know that and looks confident.
Steinbeck presents only two types of women in Öf Mice and Men”- the mother and the whore. He uses characters dialogue, short sentences and rhetorical questions to show attitude towards women his writing.
